Latest Lifestyle

6 easy ways you can be greener right now

Written By The Good Housekeeping Web team | 22 April 2016

And actually save a ton of money. Win win.

1. Go veggie once a week.

We get it – meat is delicious, nutritious, and a valuable part of a balanced diet for many of us. But the production of meat creates a lot more greenhouse gases than the production of vegetables, and contributes to our fossil fuel consumption. It's estimated that it takes 25 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce just one calorie of animal protein, which is a less-than-great ratio no matter how you slice it. So kick off every week with a Meatless Monday to make a small, significant difference.

2. Print double-sided.
Such a no-brainer, and yet so many office printers still don't have 2-sided printing as their default option. You can halve your paper consumption by using double-sided printing.

3. Buy your own coffee cup.
That single cup of takeaway coffee seems pretty harmless, right? But if you buy just one cup of coffee (or tea) in a disposable cup per day, you'll create around 23 lbs of waste in just one year. Not so harmless. So invest in a personal mug and bring it with you for the barista to fill up. Many places like Starbucks, will give you a discount for bringing your own, so this is really a win-win.

4. Don't run and brush.
That is, don't run the water while you brush your teeth. We've all done it, and it makes sense – the sound of running water is the natural soundtrack to teeth brushing. But assuming you take the dentist-recommended two minutes to brush your teeth, that's roughly five gallons of water going to waste down the drain. Really.

5. Go paperless.
For your bank statements, for your boarding passes, for your movie tickets. Plus… it's just easier. There's basically no reason to ever print a bill or a ticket on paper again, and in the very near future paperless will become the non-optional norm, so it's time we all get with the program.

6. Use your dishwasher.
If you're lucky enough to have one, use it, even if you live alone. While it may seem wasteful to run a less-than-full dishwasher, the average dishwasher cycle uses about half the energy and one-sixth of the water that washing dishes by hand does. A strong argument for doing less housework if ever we heard one.